


The Summoning

by Alley_Walk (AlleyWalk_writes)



Series: Used to the Darkness [2]
Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: (in future chapters), Ace!Allen Walker, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Magic, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Is Allen Innocent?, Kanda Yuu Swears a Lot, M/M, Multi, Part 1 not needed to read part 2, Platonic Romance, Selkies, Shapeshifter Kanda Yuu, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Trans Allen Walker, Witch Allen Walker, Witch Lenalee Lee, Witches, sort of...?, who knows? :-)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24787873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlleyWalk_writes/pseuds/Alley_Walk
Summary: "Allen Walker sat tiredly on his white cot in his tiny cell watching as a large black widow spider crawled up the wall into a small hole in the corner of the ceiling. He looked up through greasy over-long bangs to the sound of twin footsteps coming his way, voices carrying down the hall.“…you know you cannot redeem him, Lenalee. You know of the consequences should you even try.” Mrs. Chan’s voice.“…I know.” Lenalee said. “But I just wanted to see him, one more time, before he was sentenced.” She said, and Allen could almost imagine the fire in her eyes.“Well, you’d best make this last time count.” Mrs. Chan said. “Because by tomorrow, he’ll have been executed for his crimes.”"The witch Allen Walker is scheduled to be executed in the early hours of the morning. With Komui held as leverage to still Lenalee's hand, things quickly spiral out of control as sinster beings waken to stir in the darkness.
Relationships: Kanda Yuu/Lenalee Lee/Allen Walker, Komui Lee & Lenalee Lee, Lenalee Lee & Allen Walker
Series: Used to the Darkness [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1409596
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	The Summoning

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, y'all!
> 
> So, for any new readers, welcome! If you haven't read part 1 of this series, no worries! It's not needed to understand this installment of it. For old readers, you might be confused. But please, let me explain.
> 
> I always felt like there was something off with Scattered Dreams's plot. It finally came to me after I'd read an article about plot and character goals that Scattered Dreams seemed more like an introduction to a magical culture with a plot thrown in on the side. Basically, I got lost in the details rather than focusing on the plot. Sorry, y'all. ^^" 
> 
> So this is my attempt to make up for it, with a more heavily focused plot and culture that, while still there, is not the main focus.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy! ^-^

Allen Walker sat tiredly on his white cot in his tiny cell watching as a large black widow spider crawled up the wall into a small hole in the corner of the ceiling. A witchlight flickered overhead, providing light but little warmth. The magic nullifying handcuffs chafed painfully against his wrists, making a numbness that burned and ached thread through his very bones. He stared at the bowl of gruel set in front of him on the tray. He knew he should eat it, but every time he forced himself to it sat heavy and uncomfortable on his tongue. He looked up through greasy over-long bangs to the sound of twin footsteps coming his way, voices carrying down the hall.

“…you know you cannot redeem him, Lenalee. You know of the consequences should you even try.” Mrs. Chan’s voice.

“…I know.” Lenalee said.

Consequences? What the hell was she talking about?

“But I just wanted to see him, one more time, before he was sentenced.” She said, and Allen could almost imagine the fire in her eyes.

“Well, you’d best make this last time count.” Mrs. Chan said. “Because by tomorrow, he’ll have been executed for his crimes.”

There was a sharp intake of breath and a choked off sob, and Allen closed his eyes with a sad smile.

_Don't worry, Lenalee. It's not over yet._

* * *

Before they let Lenalee into Allen’s prison cell she had to go through a forty-five minute frisk and search for any magical substances on her person or circulating into her system, and it might turn into a much longer production judging by the way one of the wardens was eying her. But then there were wardens and then there were Wardens, and neither of these two emitted enough power to knock her socks off. Lenalee might feed off of her own power now instead of others’, but she had no qualms about taking it from deserving parties. 

One of the wardens narrowed their eyes, before the other spoke up, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. “Let her go, man. She’s the perp’s Muti.” The Sensor nodded to her, then to her partner who sighed and then fell into a beginner’s focus position as the door to the cell swung open and there was a strained yelp from inside. “You got ten minutes.” The Sensor said, and Lenalee nodded curtly, turning on her heel as she made her way inside. The door closed behind her with a clang, and Lenalee finally laid eyes on Allen.

Her heart hurt, just looking at him, his skin pale and sallow and his once beautiful white hair now tangled and greasy. The black prison uniform made her uneasy for a moment; reminding her. But this was her Allen, and no matter what he’d done she would stand by him. Allen smiled that same familiar smile as soon as she saw him, and all of her doubts fled away. She rushed towards him, pushing a tray of some unimaginable substance out of the way as she pulled him into a tight hug, his handcuffed hands held between them. She laughed, tears spilling from her eyes and onto Allen’s shirt, relieved and yet… sad. That righteous anger flashed through her again, coming and going like the falling of the leaves.

Allen leaned his head on her shoulder, his hands trapped between them.

 _“_ It’s okay, Lenalee. I’m fine, really.” Allen said. 

Lenalee rolled her eyes at him with a sniffle, pulling herself together as she let him go, still grasping one of his hands tightly in her own. “I should be the one comforting you Allen, not the other way around.” 

Allen smiled. “I’m afraid it’s a force of habit by now.”

There was a pause as they both sat down on Allen’s cot, Allen swallowing as his ungloved hand tightened on hers. It was his left hand, his whole arm dark and scaly with thick, clawed fingernails. 

Lenalee was one of the only ones he ever trusted to touch that hand. 

Feeling her heart thrum, Lenalee blurted, “the wardens.” Allen blinked at her. Lenalee swallowed hard, her grip on Allen’s hand tightening. “The wardens." She said, quieter. "One of them is an Outward Matter Manipulator, the other is a Sensor. Does that help?”

Allen rubbed his thumb against the back of her palm, one of the few ways he could comfort her while wearing the handcuffs. “Is it safe for you to be telling me this?” He asked quietly. Lenalee felt like he’d taken a knife to an already open wound, her heart pulled into two different directions, stretched thin like a frayed rope about to snap. 

Lenalee smiled, but it was a harsh, brittle thing. “As safe as life.”

Lenalee’s senses prickled just as Allen’s body stiffened like a board and the cell door swung open. “Your ten minutes are up. Time to go, girl.” The Sensor said from in the open doorway.

Even frozen, Allen still managed, “Wait, Lenalee! Please, just don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

Lenalee slipped her fingers out of his, and smiled at him as she walked obediently out the door, rage a simmering cauldron inside her heart. 

_I make no promises._

* * *

𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓮𝓮 𝓭𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓪𝓰𝓸...

Lenalee picked up one of the many old priceless books in the Li family library with care. After reading its title however she made a face and flung it into the reject pile with some satisfaction. The book must have sensed its imminent destruction, for a great cloud of dust went up in Lenalee’s face, making her cough and her eyes water. 

“Lenalee? You’re not getting sick, are you?” Her brother called from the sitting room, she heard his slippered feet pad across the carpet before he poked his head inside the grand double doors that Lenalee had propped open for just such an occasion. With a flick of her fingers Lenalee called upon the power inside her, feeling the slight drain as the air circulated around her, pushing the dust out the nearby window and leaving the air fresh and clear.

Lenalee smiled at him, slightly exasperated. “I’m fine, brother. It was just some old dust.”

Her eyes caught on the reverse pentacle in the middle of his forehead, and she swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling dry.

Brother caught her interest, and his eyes grew sad. “Well, just tell me if you need anything.” He smiled at her, and then retreated, as he often did now. Giving her space.

To do what Lenalee wasn’t sure.

No. She knew. Because her brother really was too selfless for his own good.

She felt herself tearing up and put a fist to her eye, frustrated as she put a hand to the surrounding desk to center herself.

She wouldn’t cry.

Not when Allen was the one who was truly hurting. Not when brother had been taken as collateral should Lenalee decide to take any action towards helping Allen escape.

And Allen. Allen was her Muti. 

Muti meant friend. Muti meant family. Muti meant things Lenalee couldn't put into words and here she was, leaving him there to rot.

Wouldn't it be̶ gre̶a̷t i̶f you̷ **c̙̻͜o͎̺͙u͙͕͙l͔͓͜d̡̝͙** **_h̴̡̪͉̓̓e̸͖͎̞̔̕l̵͇̘̞͋p̸͔̙̘͋͆͐ h̴͇̝̪̒̈́͘i̸̻̘̙̽͛m̵̞͓̼̿̈́͠?̵͍͙͖̽͌̚_ **

Lenalee looked down with a furrow in her brow. There was a book laid out underneath her hand, the pages open to a section that hurt Lenalee’s head to look at. 

The book was trying to ensnare her. If she had any sense she would shore up her mental defenses against it and throw it away along with the rest. But something made her hesitate. What if it really could help Allen? Lenalee was at a deadlock right now, with no answers and nowhere to turn. If reading a cursed book would help Allen while helping Lenalee keep a low profile, then that’s just what she would do. B̷e̷s̷i̷d̷e̷s̷,̷ s̷u̷r̷e̷l̷y̷ i̷t̷ w̷a̷s̷n̷'̷t̷ t̷h̷a̷t̷ d̷a̷n̷g̷e̷r̷o̷u̷s̷.̷ 

When the book pulled her, Lenalee let herself drown. 

* * *

It was the dead of night.

If Allen strained his ears, he could hear the distant rumbling of a thunderstorm outside. With each crash of thunder magic tingled across his skin like a livewire, twisting insidiously under his skin as a voice whispered poisonously in his ear of the c̫͍̾͑h̛̻̼a̷͓̺ͭo̦̰ͩ̀ş̮͕̒ they would wreck. Allen shook it off, the taste of chaos still heavy in the air.

It was time.

Standing up on his bunk while being careful not to make any noise, Allen reached for the witchlight overhead and cupped the glowing blue ball of flames between his palms, and when he brought his arms back down the witchlight followed just as it was made to. He climbed back down carefully onto his cot, holding his breath until he saw that neither of the wardens had noticed. Letting the witchlight go so it follows behind its new master like a small duckling, Allen stretched his hands apart inside his handcuffs while leaving a bit of chain loose and then loudly knocked his tray over onto the floor, the bowl of untouched gruel shattering onto the stone. He planted a leg on the tray and grabbed the edge with one hand, rending it in two with ease. He throws both pieces of the tray at the door with a clatter and an incoherent yell, banging on the bars of his cell before turning to slowly bend the metal bars of his cot with a screech of metal. 

“Walker, stop it!” A warden yelled.

“Contain him!” The other said.

Allen felt the wave of magic coming towards him and turned and grabbed the witchlight just as stiffness overtook his limbs. Magic clashed with magic, the rebound superheating inside Allen’s palms before there was a loud WHOMP and a ringing in his ears, his hands all one burning ache. Everything around him was all a burning blue inferno, and Allen coughed as smoke filled his lungs and tears streamed from his eyes. But he felt the moment the Mass Manipulator lost their sense of his surroundings, the magic humming around his handcuffs falling away. Allen bit into each of his thumbs enough to draw blood, smearing blood against the runes on each side of his handcuffs. 

With a thought, the magic in his blood nullified the runes. The handcuffs clicked open. 

And Allen grinned.

𝑇𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑟𝑦 wrapped itself around him like a well worn cloak as he jumped and 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑑, running sideways up the wall in a way that was possible only for one such as he. As he ran his body morphed and changed, shrinking as he shed his human skin and a small white mouse skittered up the wall directly into the hole in the corner of the ceiling, gravity reasserting itself as his nose picked up the scent of dust and mold. Something black and many legged lashed out in the darkness, and Allen squeaked as a flash of pain went through his shoulder. Scrambling down a side tunnel he estimated that he had about ten minutes until the poison from the black widow spider fully set in.

He could hold out for ten minutes.

As light appeared at the end of the tunnel Allen picked up his pace, blood running down his back as he leaped, feathers rippled along his spine as he spread his wings with a caw of triumph and escaped the tunnel just as alarm bells began to sound. He winged into the air, drawing farther and farther away from the prison compound. But then he spotted his pursuers out of the corner of his eye, the murder of crows out for his blood. Several called out challengingly to him, and Allen could feel himself slowing, the poison running through his veins taking its toll. 

But it wasn’t over quite yet.

Allen dove up into the clouds, straining with effort as he twisted them to his whim, the clouds forming into a substance as thick as cotton candy and as sticky as spider web as he passed through them. When the horde followed they cawed in alarm as they collided with his creation, getting stuck despite their struggles to break free. With a mocking call Allen flew away, victorious.

For now. 

* * *

The poison flowing through his veins was not so easily tricked as everything else had been, not with his mind sluggish and his body demanding rest. With a shimmer of magic he flushed the poison from his system, shedding it like an old worn coat as tiredness seeped into his bones. 

But he dared not rest.

He flew onwards past human cities that smelled of smog and diesel, bright lights piercing through the darkness from street lamps and windows, creating cities full of stars below. The wind was chill this far up in the sky, with only his feathers to keep him warm as his lungs and air sacs filtered in the oxygen needed for him to breathe. He glided through the air, keeping himself aloft on pure white wings.

Allen felt tiredness set in, an ever present ache seeping deep into his bones. But still he pushed on. As he went time began to blur around him, his surroundings becoming vague and nebulous as his thoughts slowed to molasses and his brain got caught in a fog. Did he finally escape them? Who… who was he running from? Allen didn’t know, but he felt that it was direly important. He pushed on.

He found himself jolted out of his tiredness by a wash of adrenaline as an unearthly scream jangled across his senses. A sense of wrongness squirmed like worms underneath his skin, and he flew higher into the sky, breaching the clouds as he tried to escape the feeling of being hunted. Of the breath of a monster hot on his neck. The adrenaline fueled him even as it faded, his tiredness reappearing with a vengeance as his second wind disappeared. His wings grew heavy as everything ached and he knew he would crash soon, his magical pathways straining underneath the pressure as they always did. Allen wondered if, this time, they would finally break.

And then he was falling, drifting out of his glide as his magic failed him, tumbling to the ground in human form. The ground felt unbearably soft and warm, and Allen sighed as he finally lost consciousness.

* * *

Kanda Yuu stalked through the sahvanna on silent paws, his quarry nibbling on some grass just up ahead. He lowered his head and took a step forward just as the gazelle lifted its head in alarm before galloping off, and with it went Kanda’s dinner. Kanda growled to himself in frustration, ears flattening to his skull just as the scent of human and sacrifice hit his nose.

He snarled.

_Not on my watch you don’t._

* * *

𝓛𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓪𝓽 𝓷𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓛𝓲 𝓡𝓮𝓼𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮

It was time.

The Li manse was hushed and quiet around her, the darkness muffling all sound while the very air stilled. Quiet. Waiting. In Komui’s study, a glass fronted window shone with the light of the waxing gibbous moon, illuminating a circle drawn on the floor with paint as red as blood. Crouched down on the smooth wooden floor next to it, Lenalee finished inscribing the last of the runes around the circle, flexing her hand which ached from the hours of work. Lenalee breathed through her mouth as she stood, trying not to taste the scent of copper and magic that pervaded the room. 

Her hands shook as she took off her shirt, unclipping her bra as her head spun with fatigue. It was likely she had taken too much of her own blood for this ritual. The cut on her inner elbow throbbed in time with the beat of her heart. But that was fine. Necessary, even.

Ë́v͓ęr̄ͯt̻̉h̞͌i̼͌͠n͆̄͊g͆̌̇ ͐͛̿w̩ͣ̕ā̰̝͜s͔̥ͪ ̋͒̉ͮf̞̝̱̎ǐ̼̻̥n̸ͮͣ͛ẻ͓̲̪.

She ͖̍ͅ҉c̶̴͚̾o̵̭̭ụ̷̌l̶͇̙d͇̉ͣ ̉ͯd͓ͧo̜̭ ͞t̑h͢i͛s.

Taking a deep breath, she does the final steps, dipping her fingers into the bowl of blood and drawing the runic pattern on her chest that had been burned into her memory. Then she took her place in the center of the circle. She took a deep breath. Only rituals or the most widespread spells needed actual incantations, so Lenalee really needed to not mess this up.

Summoning her magic, she sent streams of fire to the four candles set at equidistant places around the circle, lighting them simultaneously. There began to be a charged feeling to the air, as if the whole world were holding its breath. Lenalee cleared her throat under the tension, a certain unease worming its way under her skin as she said in a clear voice, _“Per virtutes stellarum supra, ego vocare wraith canes et uti corpus meum, ut detrimentum!”_

And the world screamed.


End file.
